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Yes, we have arrived here in Red Bay: our destination. Pulled in around noon. A beautiful day.
We left the YellowHammer Campground at 9:15 this morning. I suggested we leave late in order to avoid the morning traffic going through Birmingham. I actually fell back to sleep so we were extra late just because of my sapped self. Lulu was still sleeping, too. Cory decided not to disturb either of us.....you know....let sleeping dogs lie.
It was a gorgeous traveling day. Lulu continued her role as navigator. Only blue skies and love bugs were visible through and on our windshield. We praised our new friends we met at the rest stop the previous day. Their traveling directions were right on spot. Easy driving...excellent roads. Not bad going through Birmingham, either. It helped that were drove through it later in the morning. Timing, that was on spot, too. Oh, yeah.....time! We had to turn our clocks back by one hour because of the time change into the Central Time zone. Great, now we were back on a good schedule. My extra hour of sleep didn’t count.
As we drove through Red Bay, all the old haunts became obviously familiar.
Remember, a few years back, we spent a month here in Red Bay with our RV. We know it well. We always stayed right on the Tiffin grounds (an old airplane runway) called the Allegro Campground. It was free cause we were under warranty. The many repair bays are adjacent to the RV’s parked here...all waiting for their turn to be called. That requires patience. Once called and in the repair bay, more patience is needed while waiting now to get out & go home. Patience is not one of Cory’s or my best attributes. We want everything NOW! We had to learn patience while living here for a month! We’re good with that now. Patience is a virtue!
This visit, we reserved a site at a small campground close to the main Tiffin Campground and repair bay area. It is called Convenient Camping....we can walk across the road to the Tiffin lounge where everyone waits and waits and waits. You meet a lot of nice people here...we all have similar issues to discuss. Everyone has something in common....we all own a Tiffin RV.
With relief and excitement, Cory pulled our rig & car into the gravel covered
campground that our GPS said “you have reached your destination”. Hallelujah! Hooray! Yippee! Praise the Lord! Wait a minute! Someone is in our reserved site! Nooooooo. Fortunately, the site next to him was open so we pulled in there. Great! The guy in our spot said there was no chain or cone blocking the site as Ben (Bay-in...’member?) had said would be done. We called him and he was puzzled cause he had reserved the site himself....figured the guy must have moved the cone, etc. No matter, he was fine with us in this other site. Cory busied himself setting up outside while I did the routine chores inside. Lulu insisted on helping Cory spray the love bugs off the front of the RV. She was so sick of looking at all of them the entire trip. She wanted them gone! What a trooper! She worked right along side of Cory. I also took a few photos for this blog. We were thrilled to see our new friends (Maike & Bob) pull into an area right behind us....what a coincidence. I figured they were in the overflow area cause the Allegro Campground was full! A “Howdy-Howdy and a wave” to
them. Time to relax. I sat down & reviewed my photos. Wait a minute!!! What does this sign say that I took with Lulu? Why does it say something about “1st Class Campground ???” Why??? Want to know why?? Do you, really want to know why?? Well, let me tell you why!! We were all set up in the WRONG campground! That’s why!! OMG. GAG! Rats! Say it’s not true! But it was. How could this happen? No wonder someone was in our site....it was never our site! I’m going to blame it on the poor signage and location of the signs...plus our GPS and Lulu’s poor navigation skills. I called “Bay-in” (Ben) and asked him what he thought. Yep....we weren’t in his campground and no...he didn’t own this one. He knew he has saved a site for us....we just hadn’t gone to it! Crap! Nothing else to do but unhook everything and put all away. We drove out of this campground to the next campground (Convenient Camping) which was right next door....one driveway away.....just a few feet away. Unbelievable! We found our reserved site - right next door to our news friends! They must think we are stalking them.
We chat briefly....again, thanking and praising them for their perfect directions. Back to work, again. The routine is habitual now. It is completed in a robotic manner. We do it with our eyes closed. Lulu is pooped. She has no desire to help out. Of course she can’t lend a hand even if she wanted to. You know why: no hands! Our sewer hose isn’t long enough so we’ll have to buy an extension somewhere. No big deal.
We drove over to the Tiffin store on the main grounds. Found a few items to buy on our list. Still looking for our sewer hose extension...theirs didn’t fit. We checked out the rows and rows and rows of Tiffin RV’s on the runway. It was full, just like they said. Remember how I mentioned they only work on RV’s 10 years old or newer. Take a look at that white oldie in between the new rigs. How & Why? Inquiring minds want to know! We visited the customer lounge. It has moved since we were there. Now it’s two rooms....one for folks with pets & one just for folks....all for waiting, waiting and waiting! Our main goal here was to
check on the TV availability for Thursday night.....The Big Bang Theory & Young Sheldon....remember? The lounge closes at 8:00 pm but if you are in there, you don’t have to leave...just clean up after yourself and lock the door. We can do that! Whew!
We left here and went across the road to The Bunkhouse. Used to be cause McKinney’s. Here they have tons of RV stuff in huge buildings. We went in only the parts building....not the furniture one. No luck here so went next door to a hardware store...nope, nothing. Enough....we are starved! We drove outside of town to one of our favorite places: Swamp John’s. I’m so excited. Lulu is, too. I love this quaint place and their catfish. It is an old gas station turned into a restaurant. It is rough...still looks and seems more like a gas station but it is fun.....if you don’t mind the smell of old oil! OMG! Now what? Cory runs to the entrance. No one around. Closed up tight. Looks abandoned. Is it just that way for tonight or forever? We’ll check back on another day but it doesn’t look good. Swamp John’s might have been drained! Nooooooooo. Back
we go to town. A new restaurant is found on the Main drag: The Mason Jar. Goody. What the.....? It’s closed! Only open for breakfast and lunch. Jeeze. Lulu spies a mass of gorgeous flowers....outside the florist store. She insisted I take her picture amongst all these colorful blossoms. She fit right in nicely. She loved it! A rose between mounds of flowers! We spied a coffee shop new to us. Java & Jazz. Ooooo. Nice...music and coffee and maybe food. Nooooo. This place is closed, too. I’m talking it’s only 3:45 pm!! We are not looking for an open eatery at 4:00 in the morning! Come ‘on, people! Running out of restaurants in Red Bay....they are few in number. We travel back towards our campground past the huge dog food plant. Hey - look! Another restaurant! It’s called The Steakhouse. Hmmmm- sounds good. Building was here before but not as this restaurant. Nice place, good service and good food. We’ll go back.
We made our way to our Convenient Campground and our RV. Now we knew where to go. If you don’t succeed, try, try again! We took a brief walk and found a group of RV’ers having
a happy hour. They asked us to join them and we quickly accepted. Cory left all our lawn chairs back in our storage box at Tropical Palms. Great! We used our two fold-up chairs that go to our dinette. Drinks in hand & Lulu in her carry bag, we joined this friendly group. We all have lots in common. Always much to talk about. Linda & Joe (we have friends by that name at TP, too) had a cute pup. Lulu didn’t have a chair so sat in the gravel. The old pup checked her out....and gave her some warning woofs! I don’t think he liked her. Lulu didn’t act afraid...she never moved. It became dark outside so we all headed back to our respective RV’s. Plans are made to resume the happy hour tomorrow. Cheers!
It’s 11:00 PM but really it’s midnight for us. Time to pack this up. Good-nite one and all. Catch you when the sun rises again. 24 photos for your enjoyment!
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Linda
non-member comment
The arrival
Glad you have arrived safely ,see lulu in among the flowers,Hope all goes well with the renovations.